Join the lively and humorous chat as we sit down with Jack, a YouTube sensation with a whopping five million subscribers, who breaks down his extraordinary journey from reviewing Legos at seven to captivating millions with his content today. Jack shares his secrets on balancing ambition, creativity, and technology to keep those productions top-notch, even from afar. Expect a rollercoaster of emotions, tech tips, and chuckles as we dive into the unique challenges of his dual aspirations.
This episode wraps up with practical advice on avoiding distractions, continuous learning, and strategic channel management—all interspersed with light-hearted anecdotes and a sprinkle of humor. Don’t miss out on this blend of ambition, humor, and invaluable advice!
___
Watch the visual version of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@thisisntmydegree
Host: Original Dante
IG: www.instagram.com/originaldante
Guest: Jack Kaye
IG: https://www.instagram.com/jackkaye_
YT 1: https://youtube.com/@kayeshorts
YT 2: https://youtube.com/@kaye
YT 3: https://youtube.com/@leafwyd
Join the lively and humorous chat as we sit down with Jack, a YouTube sensation with a whopping five million subscribers, who breaks down his extraordinary journey from reviewing Legos at seven to captivating millions with his content today. Jack shares his secrets on balancing ambition, creativity, and technology to keep those productions top-notch, even from afar. Expect a rollercoaster of emotions, tech tips, and chuckles as we dive into the unique challenges of his dual aspirations.
This episode wraps up with practical advice on avoiding distractions, continuous learning, and strategic channel management—all interspersed with light-hearted anecdotes and a sprinkle of humor. Don’t miss out on this blend of ambition, humor, and invaluable advice!
___
Watch the visual version of this podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@thisisntmydegree
Host: Original Dante
IG: www.instagram.com/originaldante
Guest: Jack Kaye
IG: https://www.instagram.com/jackkaye_
YT 1: https://youtube.com/@kayeshorts
YT 2: https://youtube.com/@kaye
YT 3: https://youtube.com/@leafwyd
35 is when everything just goes downhill.
Speaker 2:Yo, but you can run for president, though.
Speaker 1:That is true. That is true Shit, oh fuck, I might be able to do that. You know, what's actually beautiful is the fact that my studio is based in St Louis Missouri and I absolutely love it, but not all my friends are based in St Louis Missouri and other creators that I want to interview. All these other places that aren't here.
Speaker 2:You should run that up. You should run that up. Run for president. Yeah, I'll vote for you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, yeah, but Riverside makes it convenient for me to record with these people because I can set up a remote studio that I know I can maintain this same level of quality. So this is the official launch of my presidential campaign. It's a little early. I got to get there first 35. I got five years.
Speaker 2:You got it, start putting propaganda, it's 2024.
Speaker 1:We can't have you sitting here recording your stuff and having it look like you shot it with a potato. It records every file locally so that even if your internet for some reason still cuts out in 2024, it's bringing everything modern. Okay, vote for. What am I going to label myself? The goat, the goat? Yeah, bro Yo. What am I going to?
Speaker 2:label myself the goat.
Speaker 1:The goat. Yeah, bro, yo should I be like join the inferno, nah. They're going to call me that. Join the inferno. That's not good. Yeah, no, I can't say join the inferno, nah. Why does the one thing I'm named after got to be an inferno? Bro, and I care about you. It's 2024. I want to see you with actually high quality. Riverside helps make that really easy. So, down below, use the code original Dante and it'll give you 15% off your plan. All right, let's jump into the pod. This is my degree. As we all know, it's crusty. And then this I almost unplugged that light. This is not my degree. Welcome to the podcast. I'm back from hiatus. I took a bit of a break there for a while because I've been in and out of town all this month, and here we are today with I'm jack jack k.
Speaker 3:Get comfortable, thank you yeah, there you go, relax, I'm gonna really need to like move the arm.
Speaker 1:You can move the arm too you gotta take my pants off. I mean that's fine, it's a little warm in here so you need, like air, work the arm. You can move the arm too.
Speaker 2:Can I take my pants off? I mean, that's fine, it's a little warm in here, so you need like airflow.
Speaker 1:Can I jerk it on the?
Speaker 2:podcast. Sure, I mean, there's a lot of room for activities here.
Speaker 1:I've been wanting to talk to you about this for a long time Because he makes a lot of YouTube content, does like the craziest stuff.
Speaker 2:five channels like I'm like yeah, you're like I want to do tech content. I pulled up like, oh, look at these guys do well, there's like six of them.
Speaker 1:I just looked you all of them and I've only heard of like one of them too. Really, that just shows how like not tapped in I am yeah damn, and you agreed you were so quick with that response. Yeah, no, you're not tapped in you're like 30 I'm just on the. Yeah, I am. We established that I am old. I I am certified unk.
Speaker 2:You're not even unk anymore, bro, you're grandpa.
Speaker 1:That's what it is, you're gramp status Certified unk, that's good Certified unk bro, that's good. That's the oh Inferno. No, yes, okay, glad we got that established. Now I feel comfortable.
Speaker 2:Now you can run for president in one year whenever you turn 40, 50 oh my bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah, come on now like I thank you for complimenting the age but, like respect the years yeah, my bad, my bad. I'll work on that. Let's get into it. Yes, for the people that don't know who you are and what you do. What do you like? What do you tell people?
Speaker 2:uh, I'm jack. I make youtube videos full-time. Essentially I run like kids channels, so like content that's like directed towards kids. Some most people don't know who I am. I have like five million total subscribers. Um, I pretty much do everything. I make long form content, I make shorts, I make long form content and shorts and shorts.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so are you primarily on youtube? Do you do tiktok? No, I literally only do youtube.
Speaker 2:I only have like 90k on tiktok. Like everything I do is youtube really. Yeah, I just reposted like all my fortnight stuff whenever I used to fortnight. I'll take a fortnight channel, okay, with like 560k, and I would just post my fortnight stuff on tiktok. Do you do like live streaming stuff too? Nah, just like shorts. I don't live stream at all. Everything I do is like just like very planned out, like my long-form content is just like I'll write like a story, yeah, for the video. I'm like okay, this is what we're doing. I'll get my like three voice actors I use like my business partner, my editor, my girlfriend, and then we'll just like run out the story. I'll be like a 30 minute video, wow, yeah, so you have it like down to a formula yeah, for that channel 100.
Speaker 1:So let's backtrack it back to the beginning. How did you even get started doing this like? When was the moment that you realized I want to be a creator?
Speaker 2:I mean when I was like was like, I made a YouTube channel. When I was seven I did a Lego review, damn. A Lego review A. Lego review. It was tough. I'll show it to you later. I'll show it to you afterwards. What was it, Dude? I just showed off every Lego I had. Yo, you flexed on it yeah.
Speaker 1:I flexed. That's crazy bro.
Speaker 2:No, so I made a YouTube channel when I was like seven and I always wanted to do YouTube, like me, and my neighbor friends or like school friends, would always just make YouTube channels. I made Minecraft videos when I was like 11, I got an Elgato, which is like the game capture for the Xbox. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I still have mine somewhere in here. Really, yeah, I had the game capture HD.
Speaker 2:Damn, that's what I had. That's exactly what I had. Let's go. I didn't have the hd60, I was too broke. I was too broke too. I ran the. I did like minecraft stuff when I was like 11 and then I quit like for to play competitive fortnite for like three years competitive fortnite.
Speaker 1:I wasn't very good. Are you sure you made it competitive? I think that's pretty good nah, I wasn't very good.
Speaker 2:I never made any money, but I like new pros okay, but like you can say, you did it yeah you were there, you were in the room.
Speaker 1:We got to respect the title yeah exactly like it's a legacy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean even when I was doing like the lego. Wow, when I was doing like competitive fortnight it was like there was always a goal.
Speaker 2:You know I'm saying I wasn't just like playing fortnight like I wanted to be the best, so like I was like I never was, but it was like there was always a goal in mind and always a bigger picture. It's not like I was just wasting my time. A lot of people like my dad, I was just playing fortnite, but there was always a goal, yeah. And then, like high school, I didn't really do anything like for like my sophomore and freshman year, yeah. And then, like junior year, I started like editing for people. I got signed to like an organization called congarna and I was like editing for them. And then one day I was sitting, I don't know, I had the realization and I was like in a call with like some of my school friends. I'm like bro, like this isn't, nothing is unobtainable, like a lot of people will be like I can't, I can't be rich. Elon Musk is rich because he's Elon Musk. Okay, but Elon Musk was you at one point. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So it's like I just had, yeah and I did it so, so you just gave it a shot. Yeah, the first video was the lego review.
Speaker 2:Yeah, did you just like continue doing lego stuff for a while, or no, I made you start pivoting when I was seven, I made one lego video and I didn't make a youtube video for five years and then I started making minecraft videos and then, like I just did, fortnite montage when I was playing competitive fortnite. But whenever I started taking it seriously, like junior year of high school, which was like two years ago, I um damn you feel old?
Speaker 1:it just yeah, it just hit me, yeah, that hit me no, I uh.
Speaker 2:I started taking it seriously and I had this like channel. I posted fortnight montages on and I just still played fortnight. So I was like I'll just make fortnight videos and it. It worked out like I started making my own videos, like I was working for people like for like six months prior, but I started making my own videos in like november 2021. I hit 100k on youtube in july 2022.
Speaker 1:What was it like in that moment when you saw your subscriber count cross over to?
Speaker 2:100k dude, it was dope. I had like a few miles like my like oldest friends over and we were just like it was like off shorts and I already had a play button because I had like worked with long form channels so I'd kind of already hit 100K and like it wasn't as exciting for me, just because like nothing's ever exciting for me, cause it's always like, okay, I did that, let me do more. Like that's not enough, I hit a mil, let me get 10 mil.
Speaker 1:But like I was like in's just another.
Speaker 2:It's just another milestone yeah, no, I mean like I was always like excited, but I was doing short so I wasn't really making anything. I was making like I'm gonna sound like douchebag. I was making like two, three k a month, which is like very good yeah, but like compared to like what I wanted.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, it wasn't near what I wanted and I hit the 100k. So people are gonna take me more seriously now. Yeah, but I knew it was off short form. I did it in a month and it was just like because I had like 5k subs at the beginning of the month and I just like innovated and like pioneered this new style fortnight shorts. Okay, but it was like it was exciting. But I was like, okay, that's awesome, I can post this on twitter now. What, like, how do I get to a mill? Do I want to get to a mill? Now? I need to make long form videos so I can make more money.
Speaker 2:And I kind of stayed very like at the level that I was in july 22 until april of 2023. Like I didn't really grow. Like I had that k channel. I got it up to like 500k subs. I mean, that channel really hasn't made that much money. I'm just gonna leave numbers it. Um, there's a lot of money for my age. But like compared to like what I wanted and the amount of subscribers I had 600k subscribers and I had only made 13 000 off that channel. Really, yeah, like that channel. Like my highest month, that channel was 1.6.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, shorts pay used to be really ass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I remember at the beginning it was like very bad yeah, I have a friend who had like a billion shorts views and only made like 30k. Now a billion shorts views is a hundred thousand dollars, so it's a lot different now. But, like um, it depends on, obviously, your audience and the type of content you make. But, generalized, if you're making like american like content that, like us and united kingdom viewers are gonna watch, you're making like american like content that, like us and united kingdom viewers are going to watch, you're going to get 10 cent.
Speaker 1:That's like the higher rpm yeah like.
Speaker 2:I have a friend with 7 million subscribers who doesn't make anything because all his audience is like india and like philippines and stuff. He's a long form channel that makes money though, so he's balling.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's good would you say there's a difference between the long form and short form opportunities, like how has been Like since you started out doing a lot of short form? What are some differences that you see?
Speaker 2:The short stuff. Youtube is very interested in people who do shorts because they want people to make short form content, because short form content is the next wave of content. You know what I'm saying? Tiktok is the biggest app in the world. So, like YouTube reached out to me, has reached out to me, and I've gotten more cool opportunities to be invited to things by youtube through my short form content.
Speaker 2:But, like money wise, it's not even comparable to my, my long form and my long form channels get a lot more respect from other creators and other people than my short form content does, because a lot of people don't take shorts that seriously, because anyone can hit on okay, you can do it in a day. I have a. I have a channel that hit a million in a week off shorts. I mean that one's cool. People actually think that one's cool, okay, well like that is.
Speaker 1:That is bonkers yeah and like it's wild to think that that's even possible now, because whenever long form was the only option, that stuff like wasn't happening, like people were getting to a mil in like a week jake paul talks about every day.
Speaker 2:Bro, it's like yeah.
Speaker 1:One million in six months Never done before and now it's like people are getting that in like 12 hours. Yeah, it's crazy, like, how the whole dynamic has changed, I mean even since, like whenever you started like it was, that was whenever shorts were kind of like people were just getting started. Yeah, that's wild. So whenever you hit 100K, was that the moment that, like you felt this go from a creative hobby to a business.
Speaker 2:No, I've never felt like it's a business.
Speaker 3:I don't feel like it's a business now, like now it's just like it's just what I do, I just like it.
Speaker 2:I kind of hate the business stuff, I have to do it. But like I just like making videos. But like I guess the moment nothing really changed when I had 100k, other than it was going to be easier to go back to school because I was it was in the summer I still my senior year and when I had like 5k subs, people would just play my videos in school and shit. It was so annoying and it would like literally demotivate me so much like it was the worst feeling in the world.
Speaker 2:Like I usually don't get upset by things I'm not soft, like people can say whatever they want to me, but that for some reason because it's imagine going home from school and at 3 pm and you stay up until like 2 to 4 am just doing youtube and doing this is all you do, this is all you care about, this is you, and you go to school just to get bashed for it, like it's just kind of like playing it and like mocking you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, they would just play the videos, like make fun of it. There was a kid that would send my videos like in, like this group chat that I left because I was just tired of these kids, and it was just he's like new, new k post and I'm like whatever. Like I got over it eventually, but like it was just. It was really annoying and I just got out of like a year and a half long relationship when I started going hard on youtube, so I got broken up with and, instead of getting supported, they would just like play my videos. I have like one friend his name's nick that like was like my most supportive friend throughout all this bro and if, like, he didn't support me and like tell them to stop and like he would like shit on them when it kind of okay yeah, okay, oh yeah, yeah okay sorry no, um, I don't.
Speaker 1:I can only say that a few times a month, because I'm mixed, oh okay, yeah, the council is deemed that I only get it four times a month. I'm not allowed to.
Speaker 2:I've already hit my a lot a lot, mate, maybe you can slide me like half a pass or something next month word. Oh, you used them up already.
Speaker 1:Oh, hell yeah okay, where do you use them all on?
Speaker 2:the first day, pretty much first 12 hours actually no, yeah, my, my boy nick would like shut them down and be like you're such a fan whenever he'd like they like send him in the group chat and like, genuinely like. If I didn't have like that support system from him, bro, like and like my parents and then like my online friends that would do youtube with. Yeah, bro, it would have been so much worse, but like it was just like, yeah, they would just play my vids in class and it's like, bro, that's, that's, that's me, that's everything I do's. I put my all into this. And like just to go to school for eight hours, just for like to have to fear the chance that I might hear my voice. So hitting 100K just made it a lot easier to go back to school because people stopped hating, because then people were like, oh shit, yeah, like that's cool, that's actually real. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Like it's way cooler to hit 100k off long form.
Speaker 1:I was way more excited for that channel to 100k but, like my school friends don't know the difference. I had people ask if shorts make more. You know I'm saying interesting, yeah. Yeah, it is kind of like from an outside looking in, people are like, oh shit. Like it's like okay, it's short form 100k versus a long form 100k.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like they just see 100k they don't see it as like different.
Speaker 1:They just see a number exactly because cloud is currency exactly I mean, it's it's true, but it was just nice.
Speaker 2:I always knew like I was going to make it. Like I always had to have that mindset, like I know this will work and I know I will make this work. Even when I had one case ups, I was like this is going to work. I'm going to make 10k a month, which now we make like way more. But like it was like I'll make 10k a month, I'll do this full time, that's all I cared about. I didn't care if I was going to make 5k a month, I just want to do this full time. I knew I was going to hit a hundred K and it happened. So it's just about like that's what's up confidence, and like knowing you're going to do you can't doubt yourself, like that's the worst. You have to just know.
Speaker 1:So you have other friends that do YouTube as well. At the time whenever you were like in high school, did you or what?
Speaker 2:okay, so I uh I never I didn't have any friends at school that did youtube with me, okay, but I uh I was. I started doing youtube and pretty much, and like I started like in like july like studying youtube july 2021, yeah, and it was with this kid named lane and we would just like literally sit and call from the second I go home from school to like 2 am and just like study youtube and like we started at the same time. Now he does this full-time as well. He's like 17 now. Um, we would just start this full-time. So I had him.
Speaker 2:He was like my best friend and then I started editing for a channel named ian rocks. I live with him, uh, and he had like 200k on youtube or 100k on youtube whenever I met him, and so him, and then he introduced me to more like I knew every four now youtuber. Like that was like in the niche that I was in, that's what's up, and then so I knew people like 500k, a mil. And then he introduced me to like g vids, who I was talking about earlier, like one of my best friends in the world, like he's like seven mil subs and like 11 mil on tiktok. He introduced me to him. He had like two of them at the time so I like I knew a bunch of youtubers just from being in the scene. You know, I'm saying like once you're in the scene and you plant yourself like yeah, you're just gonna meet everyone that is kind of cool.
Speaker 1:That is a community though. Yeah, like everyone's just kind of like connected with each other.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not, it's not as much like that as it was whenever I entered the scene, because now a lot of people just like we were all like teenagers yeah, I mean we still are but like it was a lot more like, oh, friend groups, oh, let's all join this discord and like, mess around and stuff. Now it's like everyone kind of does their own thing, like my roommate ian yeah, I mean I used to get a discord call with him and like three other guys like every single night. Now like I only talk to the people I work with, and like him and my girlfriend so like, but like it was just a big community. So it was really nice to have all those youtuber friends that would like just be there and like, do the same stuff as me and just like-minded and all that I was listening to an episode of colin and samir.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love them, dude. They're so great they're so great. I love their conversations about creator economy, but one of the things that made like popped in my head whenever you mentioned like the community and then like kind of drawing back on your communication lines, is like would you agree that being a creator can sometimes feel isolating and a little bit lonely?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, yeah, a hundred percent, okay, 100%, yeah, like tap into that, let's, let's talk about it. It's like I mean obviously, the school thing, the school thing, cause everyone like hates on you till. You make it Like that's just anything, you do anything. Like. I have a friend who was like.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna hang out with him tomorrow. He lives here. Yeah, he was like reselling stuff and he was making a bunch of money doing it. Yeah, and he, loki, was kind of scamming. Not really, I don't really know, I don't really want to get into that, but like people were just hating, hating, hating, hating on him and they still do, and he makes good money, and it's just like, yeah, people don't like to see other people doing better than them, so they'll like start hating on you and get super jealous and like push you out and stuff.
Speaker 1:It's super odd yeah, I don't think anyone really grows out of that either, because, like, even as like a full, like grown-ass man like I still run into that every single day.
Speaker 2:It's just. It depends on the people, like it's just a personality thing it's an insecurity thing you have to cure your insecurity, to get over that. That's bars, bro. Yeah, like people that are like like there were kids at my school that would just like hate on me for doing well and like judge what I was doing and like worry about it all the time and I'm like bro, like I don't think about you you know what I'm saying Like why are you like, why are you so hyper focused on what I'm doing?
Speaker 1:Like, so they just they don't like to see people do better.
Speaker 2:So they have to find every reason that like I'm like to put like what I do down. Know what I'm saying. That's really isolating. I lost like my whole friend group, kind of. I was kind of being an idiot too, I like I like whenever I broke, got on my relationship, I was like really like everything I had was that like my self-worth was in that relationship. So like I got out of that and I'm like, oh, I have nothing, I have to build an ego and I have to flex, and I was stupid. I looked like an idiot when I was like 17 I still kind of do, but like it was like the way it's, it's a chapter of life everyone's gonna go through exactly, so I feel like that's part of the reason I lost like my whole friend group.
Speaker 2:They're all cool now. I talk to them now like I fuck with all those kids, but like it's just. Like it is really isolating at that point and a lot of your friends are not going to live near you and it's like it's just. It is because, like I sit, there are weeks where I won't leave my room in my I live in miami, in the middle of the city, like I have so much I could do, and there are weeks I won't leave my room just because I want to work on videos. Fuck yeah, and my best friends are my business partners. So it's like it's you have to keep a level of like professionalism to an extent and like I'm not too good at that, so it's like dude I get that.
Speaker 1:So, yes, like literally, I was talking to my girlfriend the other day and she's like you haven't hung out with like that friend group in a minute and I'm like, well, I mean, I feel like I hang out with my friends every day because like we do business stuff together. Yeah, you know, like orlando and brad, and like I see them almost every single day, yeah, and like, but we're also friends on top of like us all doing content creation. Yeah, it's just like. Yeah, it's sometimes it can feel like detached from, like, I guess, what most people perceive as normal.
Speaker 2:No yeah.
Speaker 1:Like normal friendships, normal like all this stuff. But it's like Cause you're so focused, yeah, like once you just like get so into it.
Speaker 2:It just becomes normal. Yeah, it can be isolating, like, if you let it be isolating, like I don't have that many friends where I live.
Speaker 2:just because I don't like go out, I just lock in, which gets depressing sometimes, and like it kind of does suck, but like I'm so focused on what I'm doing, yeah, and it's just like that's all I want to think about. So it's like it's fine you know what I'm saying like it's isolating if you let it affect you, but like you can just kind of decide to not let it affect you. I feel like everything's a decision, I mean, and everything like works differently for everybody too.
Speaker 1:Exactly, like one thing, that's like what works for you might not work for me, and like vice versa, exactly. And if it's affecting me that bad, I'll just fly it together exactly, exactly, so you're in miami. There's plenty to do yeah exactly, we'll just like go out like troll people. Yeah, like way better than st louis, oh wait fuck st louis.
Speaker 2:It's pretty. I don't know how you still live here, bro.
Speaker 1:Bro, gotta make out the jam bro I mean I, I need to venture other places.
Speaker 2:I've been eyeballing chicago for a hot minute chicago's sick dude, you should go for a minute.
Speaker 1:I'm there all the time, bro, I'm planning on making like a trip up there, like probably in the next month or two. Yeah, just because I also know a ton of creators up there that I want to like reconnect right, like you know chicago's sick dude.
Speaker 1:It is sick. I'll come visit you. Oh fuck, do you know what? I was driving the other day and there was like this, like fucking eight-year-old that was like I was waiting for them to walk across and then he stops dead center in front of my car and just fucking dude, it's so bad because I have the same sense of humor as these eight-year-olds bro, but it's funny, it's funny, that's the thing like I was just like trying not to laugh because I'm like I'm not gonna give you the that Like, but that was funny as fuck.
Speaker 2:That's the shit I do, bro. I'm almost 20. Bro, I'm fucking 30. Come beef with me. I'm the skibbity toilet guy.
Speaker 1:I'm the skibbity toilet guy. That that's your tagline. You're going to be the VP. Yeah, Word what age are that, that's your tagline you're going to be the vp, yeah, yeah word. When is he going to be to run for vice president? What shit?
Speaker 2:oh, you got to be 35 I got it, just give me like 15 years skippity toilet guy.
Speaker 1:And what the fuck was. What was mine? Oh yeah, certified onk yeah all right, we're good.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you move down to miami yeah, with business partners, whatever you want to label them. Yeah, just my friend, we don't do anything together Like work together. Just friends. Yeah, just friends, just pals. Yeah, okay. So where? What happened once you moved there with YouTube? How did? How does your mindset shift with content? I actually had like a weird arc. I had a really weird arc, yeah, cause I know that, like once you just kind of like uproot your life and go somewhere else, completely different things change. So I want to hear about the character so I moved like I didn't.
Speaker 2:I moved in october and in september. I didn't know I was moving one day he's like what one day?
Speaker 2:he's like don't move. I'm like, yeah, sure, and I think he was like super serious about it. He was just looking at a bunch of places. And then I wake up one morning with five facing facetime calls from him. I'm like what? And I check my text, he's like, hey, I used your email, I signed you up for a lease in miami. I'm like, okay, because I told him yeah, I mean, I'm down like my parents. I had talked about with my parents before is that legal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I told him it was fine what you just woke up five miss facetimes email.
Speaker 1:Your lease is ready to sign we kind of like.
Speaker 2:We like agreed on like an apartment and stuff, but I didn't know we were like doing it for sure and then he's like yeah, I put your business email in because I didn't wake up in time for him to put my. He couldn't wait for me to wake up and give him my normal, so we had to switch the email on it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, he's like you need to sign this stuff.
Speaker 2:I was like all right word. So I had a really weird arc when I went I um, what I used to just do youtube 14 hours a day, like every single day, like for like the last two years, right?
Speaker 2:from like november 2021 time job to like when I moved in october of 2023. Yeah, and I got there and I honestly went really hard in october, november and december. I had some of my best months, most consistent. I was doing two uploads a day on my long form at one point and I was doing that short channel that I have that's like four million subs. We do 10 videos a day. They take me like an hour. I was doing that every day. But, um, post 10 videos a day, we don't anymore. But like, yeah, we would post 10 shorts a day.
Speaker 1:They were just reactions they take me like an hour, okay, but still, holy shit, that volume is crazy but I started talking to that lexus girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, I don't care if her name's in it, but in the podcast. But I started talking to her and I had this arc where I was like there's like more to life like than like this like YouTube stuff. And I was so burnt out bro and I know like burnout is bad and I handled it really poorly, low key and I learned a lot from this experience. But I kind of I took like three months off, like january, to like january, to like march I like didn't do much I still had like passive.
Speaker 1:I was still making like 10 a month. Yeah, I mean, you were still getting views. That's the cool thing about youtube yeah, it's digital real estate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I um, I just needed a break, bro, because I never had any balance in my life. Like I'm so bad at balance, I'm so focused, I'm so tunnel vision, so, like, whenever I was doing youtube, it's all I did. I didn't like really see my friends, I didn't really go to the gym, I didn't do anything. You know what I'm saying? It was just youtube and it, like it caught up to me and I was just hating it and the videos weren't good anymore and like it was just like I would just shit stuff out it was your audience feeling it too yeah, bro, my views were down like december, like I was posting two videos a day and it wasn't.
Speaker 2:It wasn't a great month. November was my third best month, but December was like mid, for how much work I was doing. And I just realized I was like I got the girlfriend and I've got really tunnel vision on her, which was also not great. You know, like I love her, she's wonderful, but like, just like.
Speaker 1:I should have had more balance. Don't focus a hundred percent on anything. Yeah. Like don't just focus on one thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like don't just focus on one thing. Yeah, you gotta have balance in your life or you're going to go insane. You know what I'm saying Literally. So I took like three months off and I just hung out with her a bunch and I did a lot of like self-reflection and stuff and I came back like honestly, like a little bit last month, but really this month is one of my best months ever and the videos are better than they've ever been. I'm pulling better retention than I ever did, cause I was like okay, I'm going to work, I'm going to try hard on these videos and like not just put stuff out, to put stuff out, and like I have more balance now. You know what I'm saying. I'm doing more things, so like I'll record and then I'll go do other stuff, or I'll call her or I'll talk to my friends or like um, you're diversifying your time yeah, exactly I'm here.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. I came from my mom's birthday, you know, and I'm on this podcast birthday yeah, happy birthday mom. She's like the same age as dante now um why am I catching strains? What did I? What did I do bro?
Speaker 1:why am I catching strains right now?
Speaker 2:no, but I just like I just I low-key took three months off, which was an l like 100% now, but like I needed it, and then now like the channel's more consistent I I've had like it's not the best the channel's ever done. You know what I'm saying? My best month ever was july of 2023. Jeez, my best months are always july. July 22 is my best month ever, and then it became july 2023, so you're about to have 2024 hopefully that's the new.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, it's more consistent than it's ever been. July was so good because there was a big trend the Grimace Shake came out. I do like kids content. Yeah, I've showed you some of the Grimace stuff, right.
Speaker 1:And then Colin did his video too. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:And I had like two weeks off Grimace Shake that were just insane you know it wasn't like. But then the channel dropped back down after grimace. Now I have it and I'm not relying on trends anymore, Like videos are just doing good, that like our, our original ideas, and it's so consistent. I've had the most consistent past three weeks ever and it's way better. I like this. I mean obviously the grim. The July was amazing, my best month ever. I made made double what I usually make.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying, that I made double what I usually make.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:The traffic from that trend was crazy yeah.
Speaker 2:But like it didn't stick and then like the next month was terrible. You know what I'm saying, yeah, so like I just have it really consistent and I feel like I can keep this consistency and this momentum for a very long time and make this our baseline. You know what I'm saying, and I won't drop down because we figured out how to make good videos, cause I was never really making good videos.
Speaker 2:It was kind of pumping stuff out. I'm pulling like posting like longer videos, like 30 minutes, and my average view duration is like 10 minutes. Damn, like these kids are watching these videos and I'm working really hard on the stories and just like taking that break I feel like really helped me like fix that, and I think moving out was also needed for that. Just to get out of my hometown and be like let me experience more, and now I like I'm able to like work harder and focus more. So the videos are just so much better now.
Speaker 1:Honestly, it's, yeah, honest. Just getting out of your hometown is so necessary. Yeah, like, even if it's just for a little bit, like you need to get out every now and then.
Speaker 2:So maybe I didn't have like a great like business arc, money arc like for the first few months of being in Miami, but I had a really good personal arc that I needed to have and it wasn't like good in the time. You know what I'm saying. It was great. I like I grew a lot and I had an amazing time with with my girlfriend and stuff and I really got to know her well and I'm very grateful for that time. I wish maybe I had balanced my time more and done more YouTube, but, like, honestly, I don't regret anything. Like a, I got to know her super well. She's great. I, um, I learned a lot about myself and about just like I need the balance. And now my youtube channel.
Speaker 2:I'm doing less than what I was doing in like december and november yeah and I'm making more and the channel's more consistent, because I've learned how to deal with burnout. I've learned how to make better videos and not to just pump stuff out because I need need to post. It's just like let's make a good video, you know. Yeah, so I feel like I had a good arc.
Speaker 1:Honestly, no, you gotta have time to like process, digest and actually just like take a step back. Yeah, I feel like everybody needs that every now and then I agree, but because, like it helps you just like, like you said, refocus, recenter yourself and like shift priorities. Yeah, which years you're like I want to focus on making just like better videos? Yeah, did you balance like trend content with evergreen content? Can you kind of walk me through your thought?
Speaker 2:process there. So right now there's really no trend like really big trend that's getting views. It's really not. Yeah, on kids content, which is weird, like there usually is always something like it was grimace skibbity toilet. And then amazing digital circus right now like Skibbity Toilet. And then Amazing Digital Circus Right now like Is Skibbity Toilet falling off. Like kids content views wise. I mean, just think about how long it's been going and like how many videos there are. Yeah, it's tired, you know yeah.
Speaker 2:The kids have seen it all and there's so many different places to watch. Deal with. Skippy toilet probably still get a million views, but it's not like guaranteed views like at the beginning. Skippy toilet, you know, a million views are so easy. You know what I'm saying. But now it's like you're gonna put like 100k.
Speaker 1:You know or less you know, damn that's a pretty big follow-up yeah, you want to.
Speaker 2:So I uh, like the views still do good on like the main skippy toilet guys channel, but like the other people's content isn't doing as well. So, like, honestly, all I'm posting is evergreen right now, all I'm posting is evergreen and we'll sneak some like trends in there as often like we'll. They're like sonic into our videos, but I don't consider him a trend.
Speaker 1:I think he's evergreen yeah, yeah, I don't think there's ever been like a massive moment. My sonic videos from six months ago.
Speaker 2:Just do well, still. Yeah. So I um, I'm doing a lot of evergreen right now just because there's no trend. Whenever the next trend drops, I'll drop like four videos on it and if it does well, I'll full focus that and then I'll go back to evergreen. But right now we're we're only doing evergreen stuff on the long form channel how many channels do you have three, you have three channels.
Speaker 1:You have a long form, a shorts. I have two shorts and a long form, two shorts, so'll walk you through those so that they have context.
Speaker 2:So I have my shorts channel. My biggest channel has 4.7 million subscribers. It's all like reactions. We react to like this one's all trends. We react to like Skibbity, toilet stuff and, like I mentioned, a little circus and I act like a bot the entire time. No-transcript point. Um, I have that channel. I don't really post on that anymore. I have my other shorts channel, which I haven't posted on half a year. It's one that's only mid 13k, the uh it's called. It's called K, just K, y E. It's a fortnight channel. Those videos aren't as cringe, they're just like fortnight challenges. Very like okay, yeah, algorithm. Like watch the end, like yeah, yeah. And then I have my long form channel, which is my main channel. It's like 200 K subs. Um, it's all kids content.
Speaker 2:It's like I play this game called who's your daddy, why? But like you can make kids content in it, so I just like role play. It's like a baby, it's kind of ridiculous. Yeah, and I play Roblox Like it's really funny. You play Roblox. I mean I play Roblox in some of the videos what the fuck? Yeah. And like I run it with like my friend Louie, who's like my business partner, and my girlfriend's in like all the videos. My editor.
Speaker 2:And I just I make, like I try to make really good videos, like I don't like pump stuff out anymore, like I like really write intricate stories for these videos and Google docs.
Speaker 1:So like you write like actual, like story arcs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, bro, and like I follow, like the Dan Herman story circle and stuff like that Dude, what yeah?
Speaker 1:Were there any like resources and tools that helped you develop a better story for YouTube, like how did you start educating yourself on that?
Speaker 2:Storytelling, educating yourself on that. Storytelling was always like the most interesting thing to me when it came to youtube. Okay, so back in like I want to say 2022 like in like october I went, or in september I went to vid summit and, okay, it's like a big youtuber event. Yeah, to learn about youtube. It's hosted by, like mr beast and some other smart youtube guys. Yeah, and I went to hayden hillary smith's speech and he's like logan paul's old editor and he's like a genius.
Speaker 2:He just talked about like storytelling, like the power of it on youtube creator, now classes yeah yeah, oh yeah, I've been career now too, yeah, but he, um, he talked about storytelling and I just was like that's so dope. I'd already heard about it and like seen videos, so I'm like I want to learn that and I, uh, I sat down and I just looked up like videos about storytelling and like story circles and like movie stuff, like Dan Herman story circles and like I watched all Hayden Hillier Smith's videos about storytelling and I would. Ryan Trahan's a great storyteller, so I would watch his videos. One of the best videos he's ever produced is the VR one I spent. That's one of them that I actually haven't watched. I spent 50 hours in the metaverse or something like that haven't watched.
Speaker 3:I spent 50 hours in the metaverse or something like that.
Speaker 2:I can't remember what it is. It's one of his biggest videos, something like him touching like a vr butterfly. Yeah, um, I sat down with a notebook and just analyzed what he did in the storytelling in it and I analyzed like the dan horman story circle I forget what the exact circle is, but it's like I was like this is the, this is this part of the story circle, this is the climax, this is the act like. I would just write it all down. I would like just analyze other people's videos and then I put it into action.
Speaker 2:When I was working with a youtuber named berserk um, we did like a few videos that were very storytelling based and obviously he was good at executing videos like very well. I didn't really have that skill because I hadn't made like good videos on youtube before. Yeah, I had just made like kids content and like fortnight daily videos with ian when I was working for ian and we really put into practice and it was just really cool. So, like making videos that involved storytelling and like the dan herman story circle, apparently, and just like analyzing videos and studying, it was like the biggest thing for me and then I would implement it into my shorts a lot whenever I did the fortnight shorts, yeah. And then with the kids content, when I started analyzing, like the bigger kids youtubers like I would just watch their videos to kind of understand why they do well you know, because I just always like analyze people in my niche that do it best.
Speaker 2:I was like damn they're following the dan herman story circle or they're just writing a good story. So I'm like I should do this, you know, and that's what I do now. I utilize, like, I guess, empathy a lot, like kids are very I don't have empathy, sorry word, but kids are very like, emotionally attached to figures, like animals, like dogs and every, and like girls. For one like, if you're a girl, you want to save other girls, and every seven-year-old boy has the dream of saving their crush from school you know what I'm saying, so like they empathize with mom and dad, because everyone most have mom and dads.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying like. So my character, most of my storylines, will follow my best and they're all in best friend as well, because every yeah that's so important to kids is best friend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely so. One of my videos that just did really good has like 300 kid views right now, which is pretty good for us. We have a really high RPM. It's like I think the video is like 13 RPM.
Speaker 2:There's a zombie apocalypse and my dad is stuck out in the zombie apocalypse and he's hiding from these zombies and the zombies are too fast so he can't get away. So I have to figure out how to save him. So I go over to my friend's house. I'm like how do I save my dad? I'm not fast enough. Like these zombies are gonna eat him and turn him into a zombie. We only have a certain amount of time before he becomes a zombie. My friend's like you should become Sonic 're too weak to become baby Sonic right now. So we have to go back to our house and work out and train and stuff and become strong enough. So we go back to Sonic. He's like okay, once you can beat me in a race, you can become baby Sonic. So then we have to practice our Sonic skills and then so we beat him in a race, we can go save. So like there's stakes because, like, what if my dad gets eaten by the zombie apocalypse and becomes a zombie. I lose my dad.
Speaker 2:And then there's a stake of will I become fast enough to beat Sonic? And they want to see someone become Sonic because that's dope. That's what they're clicking for. You know what I'm saying. They're like I want to become Sonic. How can I do it? The baby's doing it. Let me watch this video.
Speaker 1:So it's just fascinating, just like how you mapped that out. It all made sense, yeah like, and the storyline, like it connected and you can tell that like you also thought about the audience. Yeah like, what are? What's something that they want to watch? Yeah what's, what are things that are important to them? Exactly that's going to connect with them. That's going to resonate with them.
Speaker 2:Everything I do, I always think like how this would seem to a viewer. That's what.
Speaker 1:That's the mindset you have to have always yeah the one thing people forget is like you're creating content for, if you want to like, grow an audience and grow on a platform, you're creating for a viewer, not yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly Like sometimes, whenever I used to make like good videos and I make like daily kids content but whenever I'd make like videos that would take like a month, we would have these bits. That took us a long time but it would just be so bad for the video and you have to cut those. Sometimes, even if you feel so attached to those bits, you have to cut them. You know what I'm saying. And I was having a conversation with my dad in the car earlier Cause I just started a YouTube channel. Or well, my girlfriend just started a YouTube channel. I was like another one, yeah, or my girlfriend just started. Like, yeah, I'm helping her get started and stuff, but she's very smart. Like I've tried to teach a lot of people youtube and like I've literally brought people into my group and I'm like, okay, just listen to what we do and she is adapted the most and learned the most, and actually, put into practice the most out of like everyone I've ever tried this with.
Speaker 2:So, uh, it was a lot because I I ran like whenever I took that three month break I didn't really take a three month break, I was running a roblox channel. I was running like a new channel, personality based channel. I really didn't like doing it. I gave it to my friend but uh, yeah, I got it monetized the first video like 400k and I just hated doing it. So I just gave it to my friend and just gave it away.
Speaker 2:Just casually gave a channel away so it had like six guy subs. But like I just didn't want to do it anymore. But like a lot of the time in those videos I would keep in stuff that I didn't need to be kept in, because I had like an attachment to the things because like this is me, this was funny, let's do this. And I was trying to experiment too much and like be too different. Like I was doing blocks fruits, which is a roblox game, and I would throw discord bits in like of me and my friends, and it was just like, yeah, it still progressed the video, but it was just like bad. You know, I'm saying like the kids didn't care, they just want to see the game, what they clicked for. They didn't want to see me go ask people for fruits and discord, because half the kids don't even know what discord is true. So but I was like I was like, oh, I want to experiment and do this and try this and get people to like me.
Speaker 2:But with my girlfriend's video we made her first long form and it has like amazing retention. It was like it was very good stats. I mean, it's not a perfect video, it's no such thing as a perfect video, but I, I edited it or I helped her edit it and like I helped her direct it and stuff. We did it together very much. She was very involved, she did a lot and I I didn't feel the emotional attachment to any of the clips or anything.
Speaker 2:I was like, okay, let's cut this, let's cut this, let's cut this, let's make this video just so algorithm, so that it gets good views, so that we can get your channel out there later we can keep in stuff, but right now we just need to make this very. The video just needs to progress and progress and progress and just like keep reach, going towards the end goal and just giving the viewer what they want. And the video did great. I mean it has 150k views, like already. We posted like a week ago, which isn't like amazing. I wanted a million views on the video, but like it's like good for a first video.
Speaker 2:That's pretty usually pushes first videos anyways, but it was just like for a video that had already been done by bigger creators I think 150k views because we just copied an idea and tried to make it better and I think we made it better. We made a shorter video, unfortunately, but like it was just like. It was a good video and there's a lot of comments and a lot of the sub conversions really good. Just because it was a good video and people were like please keep posting, please keep posting. And I think she's going to build like a huge personality brand. Just because the video was like very well done, just because I was able to not keep in bits, that was like I felt an attachment to what I'm saying, yeah, you were like, very like you were seeing kind of in the blind spots where you're just like okay, I was the viewer.
Speaker 2:You know you were the viewer. I was making the. I was thinking, not how I want to be perceived, but how will it be perceived?
Speaker 1:oh, oh, yeah, that perspective shift dude, like it's. It's just fascinating hearing how you put this all together and the science behind it. Yeah, like you, really, like you can tell that you've really analyzed content that you've actually seen. Like what, what pieces need to be put together to build what kind of story and build what kind of video, and like what you don't need how to trim the fat, basically, like it's crazy yeah, no, the channel.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited for her channel, bro. I think I it whenever things do well, like I've. There's three times in my YouTube career that I have been very confident with like this will work. One of them was my main long form channel I do right now. I knew it was going to blow up. First video got a million views in eight days. I started another channel with that channel, called it was a Minecraft channel, and I was like and I had an idea and I'm like I know this will do well. And the second video got 900k like a week. I just didn't keep doing that channel because the other one was more profitable. I should have kept doing both, but I did the other one instead. And then this channel for my girlfriend. I'm just so confident that it's going to build something huge for her like it's so it's so cool do you want to plug it Nah?
Speaker 2:I mean I can show you, I mean you guys can look it up Like Lexi just L-E-X-Z-I, but it's kids' girly Roblox content Still.
Speaker 1:But I mean if people want to see an example of how the video is structured and your influence on work essentially, it's not a perfect video we made it in a day but I feel like it was very.
Speaker 2:I feel like it's a good example of a very just like algorithm video. You know, I'm saying it's eight minutes, it's just like there's a progression, very good progression in the video, very good flow. Yeah, like obviously there's a million things that could be better. Yeah, you know, we're in a month. I'll probably think that video is awful whenever we make like five more for the channel. You know, I'm saying that just yeah, that happens, it happens.
Speaker 2:It was just like it's one of my favorite videos I've ever like helped with, in my opinion, and I've helped with some cool videos whenever I worked for berserk, but this one was one of my favorites just because we did it in a day and it just was like I don't know, I was just very proud of the work in it yeah, so a lot of people that listen to the podcast and some that watch it, I'm assuming, yeah, they are either aspiring creators or first-time creators.
Speaker 1:Okay, some. I mean, there are also some seasoned veterans in there as well. Hi, josh, but yes, exactly like he's gonna be in there. But what kind of insight or advice would you give to somebody that is like just now getting started? And if you want to talk like what camera should I buy? We can get to that too. But from a content creation perspective, and like somebody that's building a story and wanting to build a brand, what kind of advice would you give them just to like, get them started?
Speaker 2:you know, plant the seed. I feel like this is not something that most people would say, but it's something I have watched with people that I've brought in because I've tried to help a lot of people bring into YouTube and only like two of them has actually like really gone anywhere with it. One of them is like one of my best friends. He works for my roommate now and then my girlfriend.
Speaker 2:But this has to be everything you want. This has to be everything you do. Like you have to not care about your social status. That's like the biggest thing, like with amongst, like your especially if you're in high school, this was like big for me. I stopped going to like every social event and stuff like that. You just have to prioritize this and this has to be your main focus in life.
Speaker 2:Essentially, if you want to make this work and I see a lot of people not drop that and they care too much about outside things that really don't matter and aren't going to affect your life at all, you know what I'm saying and you have to drop bad habits too. I've never had alcohol in my life, I've never smoked in my life and I'm never going to. It's just like I don't want those habits. And I don't even play video games. I play them a little bit more since I started dating my girlfriend because she likes doing it, but like I quit video games and I was like I loved Fortnite, I quit video games. I quit socializing, which is like bad. You shouldn't quit socializing. You shouldn't drop your friends, but don't worry about your social status so much that it consumes you. Um, like this, literally I don't know how to word it, but like this has to be like your main focus and everything you do. And if you can't get to that point of like you care too much about outside stuff, then like you got to figure it out no, dude, that's valid. I think that's like the best thing.
Speaker 2:And then, just like you can't make excuses Like I hear the excuse a lot Like I don't know where to learn. I don't know how to learn. I don't know where to learn. I don't know how to learn. I don't know where to start. I don't know how to edit. I don't know how to connect with people. I don't know anyone that does this. I mean, if you're watching this podcast, you're already on the knowing how to learn part.
Speaker 2:But like those things, you can't say like, oh, I don't know how to do all this, so I can't do YouTube. Because those are the things you have to learn to do YouTube. You know what I'm saying. It's a lot more than just like how do I make a good video? It's like you have to learn how to learn. You know what I'm saying. You have to learn how to edit and there's like there's resources everywhere. I didn't know how to edit. I didn't know, but like I learned, you know, I was just like I found a YouTube channel called Finzar who taught me how to edit essentially, and I would just mess around and premiere to figure it out. You know what I'm saying. And like I didn't know how to learn, so I was like what are the best ways to learn? I don't know, so I started following like every he's great.
Speaker 2:And then I somehow found out about VidSummit and I paid like $250 to get like all the replays of like the speeches and they'll teach you about YouTube at that event, and I just watched all of those and then I found this program, the only course I'd ever pay for. It's called Creator Now and I joined that and I learned so much from that. I don't think because you have to learn those things. You know what I'm saying. Everyone's capable of it. Some people are like I'm not capable of it because this and that and that, like yes, you are like everyone can do this, you know, I'm saying you can't make excuses that are like that, because that's just things you have to learn if you want to make it, you know no, that's, that's facts, because I mean, I didn't like.
Speaker 1:The joke is I didn't go to school for any of this. That's why the podcast is called. This isn't my degree. Like how to produce video, how to mix audio, how to edit I didn't go to school for any of that and like, now I'm a freelance videographer and like business owner full-time. Yeah, that's like, and I didn't know how to do any of this. Yeah, and it's just, I got started because, literally youtube university I always joke is like how I learned how to do things? Because, like I would watch editing tutorials and then, like, for a lot of stuff, I just threw myself in same, like I used to edit on imovie for like my early, early youtube videos.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then I was like you know what, I feel like I can do more than this, like I feel like I've already outgrown this software. So I just downloaded premiere and like I had no fucking clue what I was doing, yeah, I was just like there's like 50 options for like one little thing. I don't know what to do, so I just threw myself in it, started editing, yeah exactly same you just got to find out like sometimes experience is like the best teacher that is.
Speaker 1:it is the best teacher, I think it is a hundred percent Like that's better than just you'll learn so much more from doing Like I told you about Lane earlier.
Speaker 2:Lane's very smart, very smart kid, but I got ahead of Lane at one point. I feel like we're very even now but like I got ahead of Lane because Lane and I studied together. We did everything together. But the difference between me and lane is I was working for ian making a video every single day. Lane was not making videos every single day, so I got ahead because I got more experience. Now, like he's made videos, like we're very equal, but like, yeah, I got ahead for a while just because I was making videos every day and get experience. And another thing I do is I would work for people for very cheap, just to meet people and to learn.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know what I'm saying because I'm like I was not like I give a lot of the credit of how I learned YouTube to Berserk, who I worked for. He taught me so much. I just learned so much by working for him. And a lot of people will say, not everyone's going to get an opportunity like you, but I put myself in that position for that opportunity. I was trying to work for him. I'd been talking about how badly I wanted to work with him for six months before I even spoke to him. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:And my friends would joke like, oh, you're such a fan. I was like no, I just know he's smart and he's in. He's the best person in the. I was in fortnite and he was the best fortnite youtuber. I'm like that's what I want to work for and I I made it work.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying, dude yeah, and he taught me from the people that you look up to yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was like I put myself in that position for that opportunity because I wanted it so bad. You know what I'm saying. Everyone knew I wanted it so bad. So the second he was looking for a producer. Everyone tagged me you know what I'm saying and I had applied three times, you know, and it was just like so it's things like that like I worked and I didn't like he paid me very well, but I worked for other people for cheap, just to learn. You know what I'm saying. I did some video for some dude that was really cheap, but I credit him. Working on that video with him, I learned so much, you know, yeah, and it was just like network is your net worth.
Speaker 2:I believe to an extent and I think a lot of the time it's working hard but, like, if you can like be around smart people, you're just going to learn so much and opportunities are going to arise and stuff, and it's just like a lot of people would be like, oh well, you got an opportunity. Well, I put myself in the position for the opportunity you, you know anyone could do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that like something to kind of branch off of that. I always like being the smallest fish in the room. Yeah, a hundred percent, because I want to learn from other people. Yeah, like if I'm, if I find myself like, people are like, oh shit, not where I need to be right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly I don't want to be. That's how I feel when I'm in st louis. Yeah, no ego shit at all, but like no, I mean, that's how I feel too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I've talked about it on so many episodes and like so much of my stuff, like it's. I'm sure y'all are tired of hearing about it, but it's like, yeah, it's whenever you become the big fish, you're kind of like okay, let me find myself a bigger pond yeah, exactly exactly like there's there's always a bigger pond.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a hundred percent, that's. The other thing is like there's always a bigger pond. There's always more to know, there's always more to learn, there's always more experiences to be had. Like if you feel yourself getting stagnant, you then change where you're at.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think the, I think the mindset of uh, you can do anything gets confused. I think a lot of people are like, oh, you can do anything. Like, okay, I can blow up on youtube, but how am I supposed to do get into this friend group? Like no, you can. You can do anything. If you want to be friends with mr beast, you can be friends with mr beast.
Speaker 2:You just have to figure out how are you friends with mr beast, no sure, but like I wish dude the fuck, but not like literally anything. You can. I don't know how to learn, though, so I can't be a youtuber. Yes, you can, you can learn. You know. I'm saying it's all just like about like you can do. Anything isn't just the mindset of you can get rich, it's the. You can learn how to get rich. You can meet people, you can be anyone's friend. You know what I'm saying. Like if I really like, set my mind to it right now. I was like okay, I want to be friends with kim kardashian. I could probably figure it out in the next two years.
Speaker 1:You know, I'm saying maybe pick someone a little.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know I'm good on that, but like, yeah, it's like you can do anything but and maybe I sound like stupid as fuck for saying that, but I just like have to have that mindset of like you literally can do anything and put yourself in the right position. You know what I'm saying and I feel like I've proved that to myself multiple times. You know.
Speaker 1:No, it's facts, shit you have a really good time, because I think it's been rolling for like an hour almost. I ought crazy what the? Sigma. What the sigma?
Speaker 2:What the sigma?
Speaker 1:You're 30, dude, what so? He says it, he says it, and he's like I'll chill. And then I say it Like Squidward, arguably better. And then he's like, oh, you're 30. What the sigma. Look, fossils can be funny too. All right, all right. How was the first?
Speaker 2:christmas, dante, it was actually magical it was as magical as you think I?
Speaker 1:remember when the dead sea was alive that's nuts bro, it was crazy, it was lit the whole time he was like damn, they split that shit bro it was crazy seeing it happen real time. It's just like, oh, I can't make that shit up. Look at me getting all sentimental, crazy, okay. So one thing I I have to ask is uh, for youtube, you showed me, like your, some of your analytics. Um, what does a typical month look like on youtube? Can you share that, or are you trying to keep that low key?
Speaker 2:typical like obviously last few months haven't been. Are you wealthy? Yes, no, not for real, that make like decent, but like I, um, I, obviously it hasn't been phenomenal last like three, four months, because I took that break, but now, like this month is good like you're coming back, you're rebuilding everything in a different direction. Yeah, so like yeah, typical month. Like I don't want to like, necessarily, like leak exact rev.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I said I like you give like a range, but like a range like, I'd say, average, like I want to get this up like 25 to 50. Okay, you know what I'm saying. It's like stagnant, like a thousand, not hundred, but um, I want to, I want to get that up. You know, I'm saying to like 100 and then like 500, but like that's what it looks like right now. Like our goals are like obviously, let's get. You have to have high goals. So like our goals are like let's get to a million a month. You know I'm saying like that's the end goal. But like right now you have to do that slowly. You can't just have that goal or you're gonna lose your mind?
Speaker 1:is that just like adsense? Or are there brand partnerships mixed? I don't do any brand shit, I just like adsense, fucking shit.
Speaker 2:Okay, I should probably throw in brands, but I do like kids content.
Speaker 1:It's kind of harder yeah, it is a little bit different. Yeah, it's a little different that way, but like I want to also just be like painting the picture for people that are like, oh, like you can make it and you can just be like super rich right off the bat. Like I want like to paint a realistic picture. Yeah, no, it took me like two years.
Speaker 2:I was making like 2k a month for like a long time and then, like April of 2023, I just really started making money. That's when everything's just yeah, it literally was so exponential I'm not even kidding, I'll leak this. It was my senior, it was, and I was doing a lot of like kind of like freelance work, just like commission work for people, like editing, you know, work for people. Add a few channels that would make me like 2K a month. And then I started the kids channel, a long form one. It's called Leaf L-E-A-F, and I literally had, like first month, april or May May sorry, it was May Last month, my senior year 40K momentum since and I haven't like had a month under 20 since, like besides, like the, the months where I didn't upload, that's wild, yeah. So it's just, it's very exponential. It can literally happen overnight and you can do it sooner than I did.
Speaker 2:You know I'm saying, but like I feel like I had a really good arc, I feel like I did it pretty quick and like I just like I really like locked in and learned a lot.
Speaker 2:I could have done a lot, a lot of things better, but I'm not gonna regret anything but like an average month, like our goals right now are just to get let's get 50 as our lowest, you know. Let's get to 50k as like our consistent baseline, and then let's get that to 75 and then let's get that to 100. That's kind of our goals right now. You know what I'm saying, and my biggest goal right now is how do I like? What do I do? Long term, I want to build a brand, because right now I do a lot of like automation, like I don't really like everything is idea reliant. Like if I have a bad idea, the video will flop, and I'd want something that's just like people are going to click because it's okay. You know, I'm saying I don't have that at all, so that's the goal I would say that's let's get into goals then.
Speaker 1:To kind of like close everything out. What are some things that you want to achieve in the next, like, let's say, by the end of this year? You?
Speaker 2:know money's great and I'll start with a money goal just because whatever. But I want to get to like 100K a month by the end of the year would be nice, but if it doesn't happen, it doesn't happen. I'm not too big. I'm not too big on money. I'll choose people over money. Every day. If my editor's sick and shit, I'm like take the day off, we won't upload, I don't care, are there?
Speaker 1:any people you want to collaborate with.
Speaker 2:Oh, collaborate with Dude, okay, yes, so my biggest goal this year is to build a brand that people can can be something to people. You know what I'm saying. Like, as much as it sounds corny, like I want to make videos that people will enjoy and resonate with and stuff. And I don't know if that's going to be building a really big kids brand like Aphmau or like Cash and Nico, or doing a kid's brand with like my face, kind of like ali-a, or if I want to go for like a little bit bigger of a fortnight audience, because I like fortnight still. Like I actually unironically watch fortnight youtube videos, but but you don't play it. I play it like on occasion. Okay, well, I don't really have time, but like I watch it. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like I watched fncs, like last week that's crazy, yeah, um I, um, if I go fortnight and I to do that, which will be a bit of an older audience I'd love to collab with like Ronaldo or like clicks. They're like two of the biggest like for Ronaldo's kind of out of Fortnite now, but like clicks is one of the biggest Fortnite people. I think that'd be dope and then kind of get into that group. But if I, um, if I don't do Fortnite and I do kids stuff, biggest goal man is like I. I think having a money goal is bad. I think it deludes you. I think your, your money will come with other goals. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Like it's like a byproduct of what you do yeah, if my goal is I want to make 100k a month, then I'm going to be so focused on the income and not look at, like the, the videos I'm making there's so many ways, like if you realistically wanted to make a certain dollar number, yeah, there's so many ways to do it exactly and it doesn't like.
Speaker 2:I feel like with my channel I have right now, I don't really like. I make good videos and it's making a lot more fun for me, but I feel like it's working for like a paycheck and that's not very fun, you know, and I don't want to have money goals because it's just like that like deluge your mindset and I don't care about the videos anymore.
Speaker 2:And like I just want to like post to make a thousand dollars a day or whatever. Like it's just kind of stupid. So I, um, I I've realized money will come with other goals. So right now my goals are just like make better videos and build a brand that people can resonate with, and like fuck with heavy and the money will come. And if it doesn't come in to a hundred K a month when I want it to, that's fine.
Speaker 2:I just want to build something awesome and I want it to be the biggest that it can be, or like I want to be one of the biggest. You know, I'm saying in whatever realm I go into, like I'm not trying to be like mr beast.
Speaker 2:You know, like that's not necessarily my goals, but like would you want to collab with mr beast? That'd be sick. I've been. I was in his uh fortnight video. He had like 100 youtube. He doesn't know I am. He had like a hundred youtubers in that video. I got up first, but I was in this fortnight video they made you got in first I got out first.
Speaker 1:Oh shit, yeah, oh wow yeah yeah, maybe you weren't that great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, it was red like green light in fortnight and I got nervous and I moved I got nervous. That's crazy they re-recorded it because the audio got fucked up the first time, right, so you? Had two chances and I got out first and you got out first.
Speaker 1:Both shit wow. But yeah, um, I don't know, I'm like, really I'm, I'm trying like to be on your side in this but like that's, that's shit. That's pretty bad. Yeah, I can't even like. Sorry, bro, I was nervous but yeah, I just wanted nervous you had time to recover and everything fuck red leg green lemon bro. No, I just want to make good videos his enemy.
Speaker 2:I just want to make good videos and like build something awesome that people like fuck with. Like I want to like as corny as it is, like I love reading my comments whenever. It's like the little kids that just love my videos. And there was some mom that commented on my video and was like oh, can you say happy birthday to my son Harris? He watches every video every time we're on TV he's put on Leaf and that was so cool and getting my retention up and we did it. We said happy birthday to him on the videos and the mom was like thank you, he's going to 11 minutes and I'm like that is sick. The average viewer is watching 10 minutes of the story that I put together. That's good. That's like not amazing. I want to get to like 14 minutes but like yeah, but no, that's still pretty sick. That's so dope to like feel like I don't know, like money's great.
Speaker 1:And it'll come with getting my retention stats yeah I'm just like damn like.
Speaker 2:These are like almost hour-long videos and there are people watching like at least 15 minutes of it yeah, that's, and I'm like what yeah, right, it's kind of like I shit, you got to get out of the mindset of like the number, like you got to remember it's people and I feel like whenever you think of it it's people become so much cooler. Yeah, it depends on your goals and what type of person you are. Yeah, but like I used to not care and I just post. You know, yeah, and it's just like, let's post, let's post, let's post and make bad videos that aren't gonna even like resonate with kids and like they're like I want to like make something that people like come home, be like let's put on k or let's put on leaf and let's like let me feel better, better.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm saying. I want to, I want to build that. I don't just want to be a cash cow anymore. Yeah, that's all I do right now. Yeah, like right now, like my channel with five mil, like it's dope, like I hit a million subs in a week. We made decent money off of it yeah.
Speaker 3:But it was like bro't, think it's like brand right, you're the worst.
Speaker 2:Like it's awesome. Like that we grew something, we built something sick and we were like the fifth faster growing channel on youtube. Like I have no regrets about that channel, but it's just like I could keep doing stuff like that and like keep just money farming or I could build something awesome and more money will come with something building something awesome. So that's kind of the goal.
Speaker 1:I've said like eight times but no, that just means that, like you fucking mean it. Yeah. And that, I think, is a good place to end. You know what, for those of you that are for people that don't know where they can find you, where can they find you?
Speaker 2:My Instagram is Jack K, so J-A-C-K-K-A-Y. I'm gonna start over J-A-C-K-K-A-Y-E underscore, so that I'm gonna start over j-a-c-k-a-y-e underscore. So that's like my main thing. Like I just post on instagram. It's kind of just me, you know, I'm saying yeah, flexing, and then let's say I've seen the the photos.
Speaker 2:Yeah and then like my main youtube channel. If you want to see more like content. That's like kind of me. Obviously it's very exaggerated and I sometimes act stupid, but like k-a-y-e on youtube. My other channels are k-a-y-e shorts and then leaf, l-e-a-f, but mainly like twitter k-leaf, k-a-y-e, l-e-a-f and instagram jack k underscore.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna link everything in the show notes below so you can like, just click, find everything. But yeah, I just wanted to get all that info word, word, that all right, well certified unk and what are we?
Speaker 2:just skibby toilet?
Speaker 1:guy and the skibby toilet guy. We're signing off, so thank you for tuning into this episode. Be sure to subscribe, like. Rate the show if you're listening. I want to hear everything. Give me five stars. You know what? Give me. Give me one star if you. If you hate it, be real, okay, I'll try to just inflate the numbers. I want to know if it's actually good. I had, you know, I thought about one time like I'm like maybe I could have the worst rated podcast on, like apple podcasts, and just tell everybody to rate it once that's kind of genius you know, does it affect the how it gets pushed?
Speaker 2:I have no idea, but like I could, literally like, I would flex that yeah, that's kind of go to like I have the worst rated podcast you could literally call it the worst rated podcast and then, like, get everyone at the beginning of the episode be like before we start, rate this one star rate it.
Speaker 1:One star, one star, that's it. Thank you for tuning in. Yeah, yeah, we're freaking like that was goaded yeah, this is. This is social distancing what the fuck?
Speaker 2:yeah, maybe if you were not like five, two like we could have done that depth five two.
Speaker 1:Now he's coming after my height. Let me just set the records. I am just y'all motherfuckers, y'all motherfucker. I'm moving the table. You got me moving the fucking set. I'm five nine really why are you questioning it? The shoes is it that shocking? I'm 510 with these shoes because they got a little platform on them. I'm not going to get. I just realized that. Oh, son of a fucking bitch, thanks for watching the show. I'm going to cut this dude off His camera's cut, All right, it's just a just a square.
Speaker 2:They can't see me jerking it now.
Speaker 1:It's just it's just a freeze frame of him right now. We'll see you in the next one, peace.